Norman Lindsay
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Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist.
Lindsay was born in Creswick, Victoria. He was a prolific artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist and scale modeler, as well as being a highly talented boxer.
Norman was the son of Irish surgeon Robert Charles William Alexander Lindsay and Jane Elizabeth Lindsay from Creswick. Fifth of ten children, he was the brother of Percy Lindsay (1870-1952), Lionel Lindsay (1874-1961), Ruby Lindsay (1885-1919), and Daryl Lindsay (1889-1976).
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[edit] Personal life
He married Catherine (Kate) Agatha Parkinson, in Melbourne on 23 May 1900. Their son Jack was born, in Melbourne, on 20 October 1900, followed by Raymond in 1903 and Phillip in 1906. They divorced in 1918. Phillip died in 1958 and Raymond in 1960. In the Lindsay tradition, Jack would be prolific as a publisher, writer, translator and activist.
[edit] Rose
Rose Soady began modelling for Norman in 1902. She would become his second wife, his most recognizable model, his business manager, and the printer for most of his etchings. By the time he left for London in 1909, Rose had supplanted his wife and joined him there in 1910.[1]
He married Rose Soady on 14 January 1920. Their children, Janet and Helen (Honey) were born in 1920 and 1922 respectively. Honey would remain in the U.S. after visiting with her mother to cache her father's works at the beginning of World War II and Jane would acquire the printmaking studio on the Faulconbridge property in 1949 and build a house around it.
[edit] Works
He is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest artists, producing a vast body of work in different media, including pen drawing, etching, watercolour, oil and sculptures in concrete and bronze.
A large body of his work is housed in his former home at Faulconbridge, New South Wales, now the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, and many works reside in private and corporate collections. His art continues to climb in value today. In 2002, a record price was attained by his oil painting, Spring's Innocence, which sold to the National Gallery of Victoria for $AU333,900.
[edit] Loss
His frank and sumptuous nudes were highly controversial. In 1940, Rose took 16 crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to the U.S. to protect them from the nascent war. Unfortunately they were discovered when the train they travelled in caught fire, they were then impounded and burned as pornography by American officials. His older brother Lionel remembers Norman's reaction was, "'Don't worry, I'll do more.' And he did."[1]
[edit] Output
Lindsay's creative output was vast, his energy enormous. Several eyewitness accounts tell of his working practises in the 1920s. He would wake early and produce a watercolour before breakfast, then by mid-morning he would be in his etching studio where he would work until late afternoon. He would work on a concrete sculpture in the garden during the afternoon and in the evening write a new chapter for whatever novel he was working on at the time.
As a break, he would work on a model ship some days. He was highly inventive, melting down the lead casings of oil paint tubes to use for the figures on his model ships, made a large easel using a door, carved and decorated furniture, designed and built chairs, created garden planters, roman columns and built his own additions to the Faulconbridge property.
[edit] Career
In 1895, Lindsay moved to Melbourne to work on a local magazine with his older brother Lionel. His Melbourne experiences are described in Rooms and Houses.
In 1901, he and Lionel joined the staff of the Sydney Bulletin, a weekly newspaper, magazine and review. His association there would last fifty years.
Lindsay wrote the children's classic The Magic Pudding published in 1918 and created a scandal when his novel Redheap (supposedly based on his hometown, Creswick) was banned due to censorship laws. Many of his novels have a frankness and vitality that matches his art.
Lindsay also worked as an editorial cartoonist, notable for often illustrating the racist and right-wing political leanings that dominated The Bulletin at that time; the "Red Menace" and "Yellow Peril" were popular themes in his cartoons. These attitudes occasionally spilled over into his other work, and modern editions of The Magic Pudding often omit one couplet in which "you unmitigated Jew" is used as an insult.
Lindsay was associated with a number of poets, such as Kenneth Slessor, Francis Webb and Hugh McCrae, influencing them in part through a philosophical system outlined in his book Creative Effort. He also illustrated the cover for the seminal Henry Lawson book, While the Billy Boils. Lindsay's son, Jack Lindsay, emigrated to England, where he set up Fanfrolico Press, which issued works illustrated by Lindsay.
Lindsay influenced more than a few artists, notably the illustrators Roy Krenkel and Frank Frazetta; he was also good friends with Ernest Moffitt.
[edit] Europe
Norman travelled to Europe in 1909, Rose followed later. In Naples he began 100 pen-and-ink illustrations for Petronius' Satyricon. Visits to the then South Kensington Museum where he made sketches of model ships in the Museum's collection stimulated a lifelong interest in ship models. The Lindsays returned to Australia in 1911.
[edit] Film accounts of Lindsay
Sam Neill played a fictionalised version of Lindsay in John Duigan's Sirens (1994), set and filmed primarily at Lindsay's Faulconbridge home. James Mason and Helen Mirren starred in Age of Consent (1969), Michael Powell's adaptation of Lindsay's 1935 novel.
In 1972 several novels by Lindsay were adapted for television: Halfway to Nowhere (adapted by Cliff Green), "Redheap" (adapted by Eleanor Witcombe, A Curate in Bohemia (adapted by Michael Broody), The Cousin from Fiji (adapted by Barbara Vernon) and Dust or Polish (adapted by Peter Kenna).[2]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- Curate in Bohemia 1913
- Redheap 1930
- Miracles by Arrangement 1932
- Saturdee 1932
- Pan in the Parlour 1933
- The Cautious Amorist 1934
- Age of Consent 1935
- Cousin from Fiji 1945
- Halfway to Anywhere 1947
- Dust and Polish 1950
[edit] Children's Books
- The Magic Pudding 1918
- The Flyaway Highway 1936.
[edit] Poetry Book
- illustrations in Francis Webb A Drum for Ben Boyd Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1948
[edit] Other
- Norman Lindsay: Pencil Drawings. (1969). Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
- Creative Effort: an essay in affirmation 1924
- The scribblings of an idle mind 1956.
- Norman Lindsay's pen drawings1974.
[edit] Autobiographical
- Bohemians of the Bulletin 1965
- Rooms and Houses 1968
- My Mask (autobiography) 1970
[edit] References
- ^ a b Norman Lindsay Biography. ww.normanlindsay.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
- ^ Filmography - Norman Lindsay. ImDb. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
- Hetherington, J., Norman Lindsay: The Embattled Olympian, Oxford University Press, (Melbourne), 1973.
- Wingrove. K. (ed.), Norman Lindsay on Art, Life and Literature, University of Queensland Press, (St. Lucia), 1990.
[edit] See also
- Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum
- The Norman Lindsay Website for history, images, biography and etchings for sale
- Kenneth G. Ross: author of the musical play Norman Lindsay and his Push in Bohemia (1978)
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Norman Lindsay Biography. ww.normanlindsay.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
- ^ Filmography - Norman Lindsay. ImDb. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
